1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to saws and, more particularly, to clamps for mounting saw accessories thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
Saws often include safety devices, or saw accessories, that can protect an operator from being injured while using the saw. Table saws, for example, can include saw accessories such as a blade guard, a riving knife, a splitter, and/or one or more anti-kick-back pawls. The blade guard can be disposed over and/or around a saw blade to reduce the likelihood that the operator may accidentally touch the saw blade. The riving knife or splitter may be mounted to the saw in alignment with the blade such that the riving knife or splitter can be positioned within and/or engage a slot, or kerf, in a workpiece created by the blade. As a result, the riving knife or splitter can prevent, or at least partially inhibit, portions of the workpiece from pinching onto the blade and kicking back or lifting upwards toward the operator. In various embodiments, one or more anti-kick-back pawls can be attached to the blade guard and/or riving knife, for example, in such a manner as to prevent, or at least partially inhibit, the workpiece from lifting upwardly by forcing the workpiece against a work surface of the saw.
The saw accessories described above are typically mounted to the saw at a location underneath the work surface via fasteners and/or bolts, for example. In various embodiments, the operator must first remove a throat plate surrounding the saw blade to access the fasteners or bolts in order to make adjustments to, or swap, the saw accessory. In at least one embodiment, the operator must use a wrench, for example, configured to engage the bolts disposed underneath the work surface. In various embodiments, as a result of the above, the operator must often work near the saw blade to adjust, install, and/or remove the saw accessory.
As outlined above, riving knives, for example, can be mounted to the table saw in order to protect the operator. Generally, previous riving knives have included at least two portions, a first portion configured to attach the riving knife to the saw and a second portion configured to fit within the kerf of the workpiece as described above. Previously, for any particular riving knife, though, the first and second portions have had the same thickness. In various circumstances, as a result, several riving knives have been provided to the operator where each riving knife has had a different thickness. The different thicknesses of the riving knives, however, have created difficulties in mounting the riving knives to the saw. More particularly, owing to the design of several previous clamping mechanisms, the clamping force available to hold the attachment portions of thicker riving knives was typically different than the clamping force available to hold the attachment portions of thinner riving knives. Such differences in the clamping force have made these clamps somewhat unreliable causing the operator to either not use the riving knives or to use an unsuitable riving knife for their application. What is needed is an improvement over the foregoing.